Candyrenbo
by clockworkchaos
Summary: Charlie was the last one left. A Chocolate Factory Halloween one-shot.


It started in the garden.

Well no it started with winning the contest. The ultimate prize, a tour of the factory. The only factory that mattered to many kids. Where dreams of sugar and coco were produced. Five children, five bars, five tickets.

And now he was the only one left.

He'd met the other children. It wasn't much to think about at the time, to much excitement for the tour. A little intimidating, perhaps. He who had never gone outside his town, and them, from so far away. America, Germany. Even those from his country had at least traveled. Perhaps more intimidating was that they seemed to find him interesting. After all, he was the one who was from the town. The town the factory was in.

Violet was a whirlwind of questions. Was it true you got new products first? Did he know anyone who worked there? Were their streets paved with candy, She hadn't seen any but maybe she missed it. Also, his hat was a little crooked, but anyways it must be so unique. Does Mr. Wonka hold any celebrations for the town?

It was Veruca who commented that the town didn't seem like it was doing well for such a factory being here. Here Charlie admitted that no one in the town worked at the factory. In fact, few people in the town worked at all. Veruca frowned at this, and at the time, he felt like he had disappointed her. Later, she said she should have realized something was wrong then. All factory owners were monsters, and she should know.

Still, the early part of the tour seemed to go well. Hurricane Violet quickly switched to other things, such as asking Veruca about the places she had gone, and what America was like to Mike. Charlie ended up settling in with Augustus. He was calming, friendly, and not nearly as standoffish as Charlie had imagined a German to be.

They all should have realized something was wrong when he offered adults candy. Some he just offered, some refused, and he instead offered them a healthy variant. When Mike's mother did not want that, he had a new line of perfume he was thinking of branching into that got sprayed on her.

They should have noticed something was wrong. They were their parents. They should have. But… but the tour went quickly onward, and it was so exciting. This was it, the factory. The place every kid wanted to be. So easy to get caught up as he led them inward.

It was the garden where they realized something was wrong. "Everything here is edible." Announced in such a loud voice, then, so much softer, as they already ran off in fascination and exploration, "Of course, please don't touch my precious chocolate river."

As Mike would comment later. It was nothing but a quirk of fate that Augustus went for the river first, it could have been any of them. Charlie caught him, not so far out, reaching down a hand to cup some of the chocolate up. At the time, Charlie was sure that the flash of the ground shifting had been a mistake, a trick of the light, and Augustus has simply fallen in. The river, so placid looking was far, far deeper than it looked. Augustus managed to grab onto a candy vine and screamed for help.

Violet was the first, leaping before anyone else, coming to Augustus and trying to pull him up. Veruca and Mike were slightly longer. Veruca went to the adults, trying to get them to move, to do something, as they stood there, smiling. Unconcerned. Unmoving. He remembers Augustus's parents, smiling, gently reminding him to be careful about the river. Like he was still on the edge.

Mike was slower to act but came to help Violet pull. Charlie just stood there, watching the entire thing unfold. It wasn't until Veruca ran to him and pulled that he came to help. The four children pulled on the vine,not easy, Augustus was not small, and none of them could be considered athletes. But still, he started to pull up, to fight the current, and then the vine snapped and the group tumbled to the ground.

Augustus went under, and it was what seemed like an instant and forever before Violet spotted him, pushed into the intake tube. He was shoved, squeezed, his body pulsing and scraping on it. Charlie looked away, even if the others didn't. Given Violet's description of him being pushed through, he was glad he hadn't.

And then there were four.

When Mr. Wonka came, it was not with any sort of distress. Any sort of horror at what had just happened. Just a small "I said not to touch the river."

Veruca had opinions about this. Loud opinions. Opinions involving words like: Safety standards, Health and Safety Executive, and lawyers. She also had other, less repeatable words as well. Wonka produced the contracts signed at the beginning, which stated that Wonka was not responsible consequences of failing to adhere to instructions, and he had said not to touch the river. Here he turned to the adults, who all, calmly, agreed with him.

Veruca looked ready to argue, but then came out the Oompa-Loompa's. Charlie was never sure what they were. Wonk claimed they were from 'darkest Africa'. Veruca speculated they were human trafficked and the orange skin was the result of unsafe chemicals. Later as they saw what they would do Mike has speculation on genetic engineering or robots. Personally, Charlie thought Violet's speculation that they were living candy people was not as ridiculous as the others felt.

Regardless, the workers, and guards had showed up. Singing their tuneless songs of condemnation. Augustus was simply a fat, louse, nothing more. This was his fault, his punishment for sins.

Wonka had the Oompa-Loompa's herded them onto the boat over the river that had just taken Augustus. Mike had surmised that their parents had been drugged, little they could do now, with the Oompa's watching. The boat trip was a nightmare, a ripping away of a facade of safety and the pretense of the factory.

Now they knew what to expect. No candies were touched, no matter how many times they were offered. Chocolate, lollipops, fudge. No, best not to touch, even if it all looked so good, and they were getting hungry. It was Mike who brought up the everlasting gobstoppers, asked about them. Violet who talked to Wonka about a sample. Frankly, Charlie was afraid to even use them, but, as pointed out, they had to have something and trying this was safer than trying something new whenever they got hungry.

The gobstopper tasted like flavored sugar, the flavoring changes over time, but, at the end, it was still sugar. Charlie hadn't thought he could ever not like candy, but at the tour went on he grew to hate it. If he ever tasted sugar again it would be too soon. Still, it sustained them.

Violet was the early pillar of the group. She could, somehow, remain optimistic. Charlie didn't know how, but she would constantly talk. Not usually of the factory, but of herself, or make them talk about themselves. A reminder that there was something outside this factory, something that mattered.

Violet didn't last long, but Charlie learned more about her in the (hours, days? Time was so hard to tell down here) than he learned about the others in the much longer time that they spent. Her friends, Valeria and Scarlett, which was a shame because if all three started with V then they could be the flying V's, or the color squad if they had all been colors. That she hadn't had any boyfriends but was thinking about that and what about any of them? That she swam but wasn't much good at other sports.

Augustus had been simply opportunity, but Violet was targeted. It was her gum, she kept a lot of gum in her bag. Sometimes, when things got to worrisome, she would chew it, a way to help calm herself down. Sometimes Veruca would simply tell her to chew it because she or Mike was thinking and needed Violet quiet. Wonka saw it, commented on it as a terrible habit, and took them to his gum room. Terrible habits were still sellable, Veruca had words about that.

How Wonka's gum got in Charlie wasn't sure. But he was darn sure Violet hadn't put it there. The effect was small at first, she started commenting on how it tasted odd. Then her skin started to turn. Veruca yelled at her to spit it could, but she said she couldn't. Veruca reached around and tried the Heimlich, but Violet's body not merely wasn't pressable, but started to grow.

Augustus, as horrible as it had been, had at least been a human body subjected to immense pressure. Violet's… Violet's began to distort, to turn into something else. She stopped being able to talk partway through, which was good, as her voice had become so twisted before that that Charlie shrank back. Then came the song again, about how gum was a mortal sin. Make women unwholesome and ugly.

Violet let them all know, the factory wasn't simply dangerous, Wonka was out to get them. And no ending the tour early, they must visit it all, as they agreed at the start.

Veruca took charge after that. It was different, Veruca was not optimistic, she was determined, certain. They would get through this, they would get out, no matter what. Mike and her made a great team. She was a rock, a pillar of stability when Mike or him panicked. Mike was the smart one, seeing the traps. Realizing that Wonka never lied, deceived, yes, but obey all instructions and you would be okay. More than once Mike's knowledge kept them all safe.

Charlie didn't do much of anything, except follow them.

Still, the tour wore on. Food came from the gobstoppers, and the occasional thing they were certain was safe after extensive questioning, and in some cases Volet feeding it to her father first, who would always passively accept. Charlie had asked about that once offering to try instead, and she had said that anything that happened to him was deserved, unlike everyone else. Sleep was had on the rides between rooms, even their nightmarish visions became dull.

Still, Mike and Charlie relied on Veruca's certainly, her confidence for their stability. No one asked what Veruca was relying on. They should have seen it, her wearing down. Not talking with as much determination, not talking about what would happen when they got out. The first time she cried, both of them shrank back, they didn't know what to do, Veruca didn't cry. Then, not long afterward, they came to the room. It was a room, filled with… squirrels, swans? Charlie wasn't sure, it all seemed… nothing in this place seemed right. It wasn't important, what was important was the garbage shoot.

Veruca ran for it, jumping down it. She shouldn't have, should have waited for that little 'oh but' that Wonka always had afterward. In this case, it was the incinerator. So came the song again, how women shouldn't be bossy and demanding.

Mike didn't last long after that. When Wonka mentioned sending things through matter transfer, Mike lept on it. Veruca would have reached out to stop him. Violet would have. Augustus probably would have, if he had had been there. But Charlie didn't, couldn't tell him to stop. And so Mike was lost, the influence of Television, or Videogames, or something, Charlie didn't really care.

And now he was alone, with Wonka. There was no candy here, just an office.

"What? What now?"

Wonka smiled. "You're the last one. You've won."

**Confectionary Mogal Announces Contest**

The golden tickets, which took the world by storm 40 years ago when announced by the original Wonka, have arrived again. Charlie Bucket, the inheritor of Wonka enterprises, has announced a new contest. While the announcement has only offered a tour, there is speculation that the next successor is being sought for the famously closed factory.

AN: Happy Halloween everyone


End file.
